IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jasjnl/v8y2016i11p112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Response of Maize (Zea mays L.) Secondary Growth Parameters to Conservation Agriculture and Conventional Tillage Systems in Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Regina Hlatywayo
  • Blessing Mhlanga
  • Upenyu Mazarura
  • Walter Mupangwa
  • Christian Thierfelder

Abstract

Previous, research focused mainly on the effects of conservation agriculture (CA) and conventional practices (CP) on crop yield mostly. A study was conducted at five sites in Zimbabwe from 2012 to 2014 to investigate effects of CA and CP practices on emergence, chlorophyll content, early vigour and grain yield of different maize varieties using 12 hybrids and 4 open pollinated varieties (OPVs). The experiment was laid as a 4 × 4 alpha lattice design with three replications. Emergence was higher under CA (75%) at University of Zimbabwe (UZ) in 2012/13 and Domboshawa Training Centre (DTC) (67%) compared to CP (71% and 39% respectively). Lower early plant vigour was observed under CA compared to CP at most sites. CA had lower leaf chlorophyll content during the early crop growth stages compared to CP. However, at some instances, CA had higher leaf chlorophyll content (45 units) than CP (35 units) at 78 days after sowing in Zimuto 2012/13. For maize yield, CA outperformed CP on a sandy loamy soil (3050 kg ha-1 vs 2656 kg ha-1) and clay soil (4937 kg ha-1 vs 4274 kg ha-1). However, on a sandy soil, CP outperformed CA (1764 vs 1313 kg ha-1). Our results suggest that tillage effects on early maize plant vigor, leaf chlorophyll content and the final yield can be site and season specific. Furthermore, a delay of nutrient release for plant uptake under CA systems was found and potentially implies investigations of new fertilization strategies for such cropping systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Regina Hlatywayo & Blessing Mhlanga & Upenyu Mazarura & Walter Mupangwa & Christian Thierfelder, 2016. "Response of Maize (Zea mays L.) Secondary Growth Parameters to Conservation Agriculture and Conventional Tillage Systems in Zimbabwe," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(11), pages 112-112, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:8:y:2016:i:11:p:112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/download/62024/34193
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/62024
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:8:y:2016:i:11:p:112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.